Willingly Waiting
by nim1980
Summary: Nanoha waits painfully as she watches the burning island that would sink soon. Her pain pushed aside as she struggles against her own wavering heart, but not her will as she grasp her hands on that cloak around her shoulders.


**Disclaimer:- I do not claim nor own anything ****that is of copyright infringe from****Masaki Tsuzuki****'s "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha"****. This fiction is for pure ****entertainment**** only and not for commercial purposes.**

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A woman in her military uniform stood on the tip of the cliff, overlooking at a faraway island in smokes. Her slate blue eyes were firm but tears were threatening to pour, but she refrains as it stings her eyes. Her brown hair tied into a side-ponytail fluttered alongside a long cloak she wore on her shoulders. Her hands tugged onto them as she felt the lingering presence of her very important special person.

She had stood on that very cliff for almost two days, beside an outpost full of paramedics and transports. They were moving to and fro all over the place as they fought against their own fatigue. All of them were victims from the smoking island and had been rescue before the coming catastrophe. She and all of them were free to head home while the wounded were to return to the hospitals.

While she was happy there were no casualties, one person had stayed on that very island to accomplish her mission. She had argued and fought against her important special person to come along and help. She was refused patiently and politely despite her heated arguments.

"Fate…" her whispers cracked as she pulled the cloak closer to her chest.

A strong gust of wind blew against her, but she refused to budge as she grit her teeth. Her hands trembling in anxiety as it was getting close to another day. It would then be the day the island sunk. She wasn't angry or sad about the island's collapse, it was the cause of natural disasters.

She was feeling helpless and praying throughout for her important special person to return home. She didn't care if her important special person came back crippled, injured or even unconscious. As long as she is alive and not dead.

She shook her head furiously as tiny drops of her tears scattered from her face. She firmly holds back her tears and legs from buckling to the ground. Her legs were stinging and so was her heart. She was more angry at the pointless bad feelings she gets from her instincts. She wish she could call them pointless, but they had and have helped her countless times.

A soft booming sound came from the smoking island, but it had yet to sink the island. Her eyes count the trails of smokes coming out from it. She couldn't remember what was on the island, except it was a factory for building energy reactors. That alone was a sign of how extremely haphazard it can be had they not evacuated as early and quickly as possible.

Despite the success and near-death experiences, the higher-ups in her line of work intervened. They wanted some particular object that she doesn't care about. She knew they were a greedy and selfish bunch right when they refused to hear about the suffering people.

They retorted about them being incompetent militarists with no regard to the world's foundation. Then they started barking about disbanding their group for poor performances and intolerable services. She should have gone to them and destroy them, but she knew it would only bring unneeded causatives especially to her friends and colleagues.

They ordered them to send every personnel back to the island to retrieve the object. She was about to intervene for a different approach, but Fate called out that she would go alone instead of the personnel. She was in fact furious of her approach.

Fate clarified that the personnels were exhausted and would not be able to conduct a proper or thorough search. She then added that she was the fastest and will rather than could, bring back the object before the island would sink in two days. Throughout that video conference, she was angry and upset that she was left out on helping Fate.

Once it was over and they were standing on the cliff that she stood. Right as she was about to look at her and scold her, Fate had turned over the cloak and wrapped them around her shoulders. She was briefly stunned as she was given a quick kiss onto her lips.

"_I'll come back, Nanoha. Please wait for me, I promise." Fate whispered as she brush her thumbs on Nanoha's cheeks._

Just as she said that and before Nanoha could say anything, Fate had flown towards the island in the speed of light. So many emotions were spinning in her, but she firmly refused to let them out. Nanoha made a silent promise to herself to wait for Fate right where she stood until she comes back. Fate would get an earful when she comes back. She smiled lightly as she imagined the look on Fate's face.

A sudden quake violently erupted, Nanoha firmly refused to stagger or even move her feet. Once it was over, a sudden boom louder than before came from the island. A fire so huge consumed the whole island and left nothing but one big smoke that filters the very sky. The island began to slowly submerge and fall apart in rubble.

Nanoha stood as she was, still waiting for Fate's return. Her heart however, was wavering just like the fall of the island. She bit her lips as the wind around her dies. It might be her superstition that when the wind dies after a catastrophe, something had come to its end. It could be anything that it meant, including Fate.

Nanoha's vision started to blur as she still refused to shed her tears. A flaring pain was hurting her eyes and her aching legs wanted to ground her. She refused furiously because she believes in Fate and her promise.

So she waited where she had stood for two days

"Nanoha…" a 'teen' woman called as she stood beside her, but at arms length.

"Vita…" Nanoha replied with a light crack in her voice.

Vita wanted to let Nanoha wait in the shelter. She thought otherwise as she looked at Nanoha's firm yet achingly quivering figure. Vita could feel two storms coming, one from the clouds that was filtered in smokes, and the other from Nanoha's.

It began raining then when she wanted to step closer to Nanoha, but she didn't when she realised Nanoha was fighting against herself from kneeling to the ground. Instead, Vita stood where she was, beside Nanoha.

As the rain poured and pours over the two woman for so long that a new day had just passed. Vita was conflicted, but she knew it was Nanoha who is more conflicted. Nanoha's hands were tightly grasping onto the cloak as though she was going to rip them. Her head bowed down as her bangs covered her expression, but she still remained standing and waiting.

Vita wanted to knock Nanoha senseless, but she stilled her hands from doing so. Vita struggles as she wants to pull Nanoha out of the rain or hug her inner-turmoil out and down. The island had already sunk without leaving anything behind. Fate had yet to appear or at least send any signal as to where she was.

Already Vita didn't want Nanoha to fall sick or worsen her condition, as she too had promised herself to be stronger and protect her family and friends devotedly. Right now, she wish she had some way to magically bring Fate here. Alas, she had no options but to step closer to Nanoha and pour her heart out with Nanoha's.

Just as Vita was about to embrace her, a familiar figure before her stood closely to her and Nanoha.

"Could you please give them this?" A soft voice cut through the pattering sounds of rain.

Vita shook her head and grinned as she silently takes the object from her hands. Then Vita left with a wink at her, leaving Nanoha and the very familiar figure together.

Nanoha heard that voice too, but she wasn't so sure if it was her tiredness making hallucinations or just driven insane from hoping too much. Suddenly, she was wrapped into a very familiar arms wrapped around her as her head was pulled to rest onto the chest. Everything she had once felt washed away, as she felt ever so safe and complete than she was before.

"Nanoha~" the familiar figure chimed at her forehead, tickling Nanoha's forehead in turn.

Nanoha couldn't reply, she knows her words would be incomprehensible as she was still basking on the safest and warmest pair of arms. The familiar figure's heart beat pulsated as her ears traced them. She knew that this was the real important special person as her hands rests onto the figure's chest.

"I'm back, Nanoha."

"Welcome back, Fate."

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Thank you and Please enjoy what you read, at your own will.

Author's bumbles:- Hello again! I really like these two, they give me that soft fluffy feeling and sometimes they make me firmly nod. Anyway, I have a high doubt that I was able to capture the character's personality or even their sense of will justifiably. To boot, I confess that I have a seriously terrible memory in remembering almost anything, including any anime (that includes my other stories). I just feel really bad when I don't capture them to credit the author's character itself. So I told myself, that if I want to respect the characters, start by their chemistry. Anyway apart from that, I enjoyed writing this so my efforts were more on my enjoyment than audiences or readers.:p I still try to make sure its readable so there's that. Bye bye!


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